The invention concerns a sampling device for molten metals, especially for molten cast iron or pig iron, with a sampling chamber arranged in a refractory body held on a carrier which is bounded on two opposing walls by one metal chilling disk (metal plate) each, and which has at least one inlet opening for molten metals on a further wall.
Such sampling devices are known from EP 0 107 219 A1, for example. These sampling devices are suited for taking samples, especially of molten steel. The samples obtained therewith are disk-shaped and usually at least 4 mm thick. The metal plates serve to cool the samples rapidly, among other things. A similar arrangement is known from DE 34 02 818 A1. Here, plate-shaped chilling elements are set at a distance from the wall of the sampling chamber of a sampling device and mounted on the wall by means of fastening elements (screws). U.S. Pat. No. 3,824,837 discloses a measuring chamber for recording the solidus or liquidus curve, in which chilling elements are arranged which dissolve in the incoming molten metals.
For example, with molten cast iron, which has a relatively high carbon content, the so-called "white solidification" is desirable for a reliable analysis, for example for spectral analysis, since during the white solidification, the carbon bound in the melt is not precipitated during the hardening. In order to obtain the most ideal white hardening possible, a rapid sample chilling is necessary, that is, the sample itself must be as thin as possible. In modern steel factories samples are analyzed automatically. In this connection, the samples are picked up by robotic graspers and transported. These graspers pick up the disk-shaped samples on their narrow sides. The force of the grasper thereby exerted on the samples can however deform samples which are too thin. There thus exists in practice a contradiction between the smallest possible sample thickness for an ideal white solidification, on the one hand, and the need for a minimal stability of the sample necessary for the sample processing, on the other hand. Sampling devices of the prior art always generate samples whose thickness represents a compromise between the two requirements existing for the analysis of cast iron samples.